Voters in Britain’s referendum need to understand that the European Union was about building a federal superstate from day one

As the debate over the forthcoming EU referendum gears up, it would be wise perhaps to remember how Britain was led into membership in the first place. It seems to me that most people have little idea why one of the victors of the Second World War should have become almost desperate to join this “club”. That’s a shame, because answering that question is key to understanding why the EU has gone so wrong.

Most students seem to think that Britain was in dire economic straits, and that the European Economic Community – as it was then called – provided an economic engine which could revitalise our economy. Others seem to believe that after the Second World War Britain needed to recast her geopolitical position away from empire, and towards a more realistic one at the heart of Europe. Neither of these arguments, however, makes any sense at all.

#52: Stupid in California, or, How Excess and Environmentalists Caused The Drought

In this episode of Next Level BS, we take a look at the latest “drought to end all droughts” in California. While many are quick to blame crops that require excessive irrigation, or environmental policies that divert billions of gallons of water because of a small fish, it’s not the whole story. There are dozens of rich communities, scattered throughout California, that consume more than four-times the water than the average US household outside of drought regions. One such community, with less than 20,000 people, uses nearly 8 million gallons of water each day! And that’s just residential use, it doesn’t factor in the four golf courses. The ultra-rich in California believe their rights to water are more important than everyone else’s. This is our final episode of our second season, and we’re taking a short break. Watch to the end for a big announcement.

Americans keep being hectored to take “refugees” from terrorist-producing countries because to do otherwise would be “a betrayal of our values,” as President Obama said on Monday.

The rise of Donald Trump reminds us of the popularity of another, long-forgotten American value: protecting Americans.

Contrary to Obama’s laughable reference to “the universal values” that “all of humanity” share, most of the world does not share our values, at all. They barely seem to share our DNA. As indignantly explained by the lawyer representing two Iraqis accused of child rape in Nebraska, America’s views about women and children “put us in the minority position in the world.”

No, blacks and Latinos are not particularly interested in “safe spaces” or “trigger warnings.” These pseudo-therapeutic phrases sound very much like (because they are) the type of babble heard from wilting suburban white girls. Not the types of suburban white girls who get black belts in taekwondo and later vote Republican, mind you, but rather the types who usually accuse black and Latino men of “bullying” and go on to intern at “women’s centers” on leafy New England campuses.